Friday, July 19, 2013

Friday Weigh-In: Back on track in a big way!

After a week and a half of "vacation" eating and a 4lb gain, I got back on track and my motivation and drive has been great!  I've been fitting exercise in and eating like a champ (sometimes not enough but we'll get to that in a minute).

What was my total this week?

6.8 POUNDS!!!

So happy with that!  This is exactly what happened the last time I committed myself by entering DietBets.  I know there are a lot of factors, but I loved that big number after really getting down to business after some time off.  Such great motivation to continue.

Like I said, I want to talk about my food intake.  My problem right now is that I'm consuming too few calories.  I am staying away from unhealthy snacks during the day and nighttime snacking.  I have been pretty busy with the kids and haven't missed it at all.  I'll finish tracking for the day and know I am under but, late at night, I'm not wishing for any sort of snack and don't think it is worth snacking just because of some number of calories I need to reach.

I'm not concerned too much because I really only engage is light exercise tight now.  I'm not burning 400 calories at a time.  If I was, I know I would need that extra fuel.  My activity is pretty much limited to pushing a double stroller for an hour a day and hitting just over 2 miles.  I've been striving for a bit more, but I figure that will come in time as I slowly increase it a bit.

I also have completely felt satisfied.  I'm not ignoring any hunger signals. I haven't felt like snacking, because I have no problem making it to my meals.  I also feel like my meals have been a great size.  I wish I would have snapped some meal pics this week so I could show how nicely proportioned they are.  I think I'm going to make it my goal to get some more fruits and veggies in during the day, but I also feel like my meals have been pretty well-rounded.

I've begun sharing my food diary on MyFitnessPal because I'd love some input.  I was really surprised one day when I felt like I ate great and noticed I had only eaten under 700 calories.  That's not good either.

Cut off above are two of my Healthier Egg Breakfast Muffins

I know I will likely begin to eat more naturally, but I am actually struggling to eat enough.  I'd like to think I'm just making healthy enough choices that I am able to feel satisfied with less calories.  I don't think I could make my meals much bigger because they seem huge, but I might have to force myself to snack even when I'm not hungry.

Alright.... That probably could have been summed up a bit quicker, but I'm asking for advice!  Any help would be appreciated!












I just have to add that last night was pretty much one of the first nights I've had out since getting pregnant with my first kiddo. It was a friend's 30th and drinks were had. I had a nice big salad to start and tried to make healthy drink choices with Captain and Diet over the pitchers of beer. Unfortunately, a friend who wanted to celebrate ordered me a Bulldog with Captain substituted for Vodka even though I told her I didn't want a drink with cream. I would never normally order a drink like that, even when not watching my weight, somI gave it to Bubby and took some drinks for show. Aren't we at least impressed that I tracked everything?

4 comments:

  1. At a quick glance, I think you should be eating more protein. Like, a LOT more. At least 1g per pound of lean muscle or if you don't know that number, eat 1g per pound of body weight.

    But, It depends on what your goals are that determine how much to eat. You should choose a ratio of Fat/Carbs/Protein that you want to eat in a day. Take that ratio and divide out your calories and eat according to those macros. This helps tremendously with meal planning because you know exactly how much to eat.

    For example, I'll give you my macros.

    I want to eat between 1800-2000 calories a day. My TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure, meaning how much I burn from just being alive and from exercise. I used http://eattoperform.com/eat-to-perform-calculator/) is 2500 calories. I want to eat in a deficit (to lose weight), so that's how I arrived at 1800-2000 calories per day. This will also ensure I am not eating too little, thus putting me in a plateau/starving mode. I also need enough calories to sustain me through my workouts. Eating too little will exhaust you!

    Based on my calories per day, I can determine the percentage of those calories that should be consumed in Fat/Carb/Protein form. I decided that I want to eat a 30/30/40 ratio, meaning 30% of my calories come from Fat, 30% from Carbs, and 40% from Protein.

    Multiply 1800 by .3 gives us 540. This is 30% of 1800 calories.
    Multiply 2000 by .3 gives us 600. This is 30% of 2000 calories.
    We can use these numbers to find how many calories to consume for Fat and Carbs since I want 30% to come from Fat and Carbs.

    Multiply 1800 by .4 gives us 720. This is 40% of 1800 calories.
    Multiply 2000 by .4 gives us 800. This is 40% of 2000 calories. Use this to find how many calories should be eaten from Protein since I want 40% of my calories to come from Protein.

    We know that 1g of Fat equals 9 calories. 1g of Carbs and 1g of Protein both equal 4 calories.

    To find how many grams of Fat to eat per day, we can divide 540 by 9 (60) and 600 by 9 (66.6). This gives us a range to eat based on 30% of 1800-2000 daily calories, 60g-66g.

    To find grams for Carbs, we divide 540 by 4 (135) and 600 by 4 (150). This gives us a range to eat based on 30% of 1800-2000 daily calories, 135g-150g.

    To find grams for Protein, we divide 720 by 4 (180) and 800 by 4 (200). This gives us a range to eat based on 40% of 1800-200 daily calories, 180g-200g.

    I'm sure there are online calculators out there, but the math is fairly easy to figure out. You just have to know the variables to plug in based on your personal goals.

    I don't use MFP, I use tracker.dailyburn.com. I can help you figure out your totals if you want, but I'll guess that MFP has a calculator of some type.

    Hope that helps.

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  2. I think this is a pretty slippery slope, you sure don't want to eat when you're not hungry, but 700 calories is definitely not enough!! Congrats on the loss and I bet you are burning more calories then you might think pushing that double stroller for an hour!!

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  3. Add more protein. Helps with building muscle. When I have extra calories, peanut butter is my go to treat after dinner when I have extra calories.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! You're the second person to give that advice, so I'm going to listen. The thing I don't like about MFP is that I always seem to go over the amount of protein they list as a goal. If that is just the goal and more is better in that area, they shouldn't give me a big negative number in red!

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